1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus which records an image on a paper by a recording head provided in a housing of the apparatus and discharges the paper on which the image has been recorded to a paper discharge tray provided in the housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an ink-jet recording apparatus having both a printer function and a scanner function, a scanner section having the scanner function is generally attached to an upper portion of a printer section having the printer function by a hinged structure. A first housing constructing the printer section accommodates a carriage which carries a recording head and an ink cartridge and at least a part of a paper discharge tray to which a paper having an image recorded thereon is discharged. A second housing constructing the scanner section is provided with a platen glass on which a document is placed and an image sensor which scans the image of the document. In conventional techniques, when the ink cartridge is replaced by a user, the scanner section is rotated by the hinged structure to be lifted up, an opening provided on the upper portion of the first housing is opened, and then, the user puts his/her hand from the opening into an area, in which the carriage is placed, to replace an empty ink cartridge with a new one. Further, in a case of taking out the paper discharged on the paper discharge tray, the user visually confirms the paper from an opening for taking out the paper, which is provided at a front portion of the first housing, and takes out the paper with his/her hand.
However, the scanner section is considerably heavy owing to the platen glass, the image sensor, etc. Thus, an angle formed when the scanner section is lifted up is limited to a small angle for preventing a fall etc. As a result, even when the scanner section is lifted up to open the opening, it is difficult to take sufficient light of room lighting in the area in which the carriage is placed. Due to darkness of this area, the workability when the ink cartridge is replaced by the user is deteriorated.
Furthermore, in a case that a small-sized paper, such as a postcard, is discharged to the paper discharge tray, all or a substantial portion of the small-sized paper is placed inside the housing. It is difficult to take sufficient light of room lighting at the inside of the housing. Accordingly, it is difficult for the user to visually confirm an existence of the small-sized paper from the opening for taking out the paper, thus the workability when the small-sized paper is taken out by the user is deteriorated.
Various techniques for improving “the workability when the ink cartridge is replaced by the user” have been suggested in the past. For example, United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0092194 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-129369) describes a structure that a light source mounted on an image scanning section of a scanner unit irradiates an inside of a recording unit with a light through a window provided between the scanner unit and the recording unit. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-188638 describes a structure that an indicating light is irradiated to an ink tank through a transmitting means (hole etc.) provided in a maintenance cover.
In the above related arts (United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0092194 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-188638), the light is irradiated to the recording unit or the ink tank (i.e. ink cartridge), thus, it is possible to improve “the workability when the ink cartridge is replaced by the user”. However, the above related arts fail to consider the improvement of “the workability when the paper having the image recorded thereon and stacked on the paper discharge tray is taken out by the user”, and the workability still remains unimproved.